Death of Baby P 'was preventable'

Thursday 22 January 2009 00:05 BST

The "horrifying death" of Baby P "could and should have been prevented" but social workers and other agencies were too concerned with keeping mother and child together, a second serious case review found.

Social workers, doctors, lawyers and police should have been able to stop the situation "in its tracks at the first serious incident" but their outlook was "completely inadequate".

The 17-month-old boy, who was found dead with multiple injuries on August 3, 2007, should have been placed in care, the review carried out by Haringey Local Safeguarding Children Board found.

More should also have been done to discover the role and identity of the mother's boyfriend. Council workers denied any knowledge of the man even though Baby P's father warned them he had seen the boyfriend at the family home.

Although agencies thought it was unlikely the mother was injuring the child nobody took the next step and looked into whether somebody else was involved, according to the executive summary of the review.

Even after the boy, who can now be named as Peter, was put under a child protection plan, his case was regarded as routine "with injuries expected as a matter of course". The professionals tasked with the boy's protection were "lacking urgency", "lacking thoroughness" and "insufficiently challenging to the parent".

Referring to the decision to remove a child into care, the review said: "There will be times when (professionals) have to grasp the nettle, using professional judgment, in the knowledge that they may be proved to be mistaken. Better that than the harm that the child will have to experience instead."

Graham Badman, the chairman of Haringey Local Safeguarding Children Board, said: "I believe the most important lesson arising from this case is that professionals charged with ensuring child safety must be deeply sceptical of any explanations, justifications or excuses they may hear in connection with the apparent maltreatment of children. If they have any doubt about the cause of physical injuries or what appears to be maltreatment, they should act swiftly and decisively.

Mr Badman, a Government adviser and visiting professor at the University of London, said the manipulative and deceptive behaviour of the mother was "no mitigation" for social workers and agencies and it was important for them to use the "first-hand evidence of their own eyes" when dealing with such cases.

The review was commissioned by Children's Secretary Ed Balls after Peter's death, after Ofsted found the first review published in November last year was "inadequate".